Partnering to Address Health Inequities among Incarcerated Populations: Prisons, Jails, and COVID-19 Vaccination.

BACKGROUND

Incarcerated people have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and face significant challenges to COVID-19 vaccine confidence.

OBJECTIVES

(1) Describe our partnerships with community members directly impacted by incarceration, (2) discuss the partnership's process for co-developing and implementing project interventions to increase COVID-19 vaccine confidence, and (3) share lessons learned from this unique community-engaged partnership.

METHODS

An advisory board of 14 formerly incarcerated community members participated in this project. Their wisdom and experience led to the development and implementation of interventions to increase confidence in COVID-19 vaccines among incarcerated people.

LESSONS LEARNED: Valuable lessons learned were centering community, leaning into trusted sources of information, acknowledging historical and present harms, and investing in community-engaged work.

CONCLUSIONS

Centering lived experiences of those directly impacted by incarceration has been crucial to increasing vaccine confidence among this population. Doing so reinforced the importance of long-term investments in community-based collaborations with communities impacted by incarceration.